This semester I am the Teachers Assistant for the Introduction to Ceramics class with the delightful Neil Forrest. Neil spends his time between Nova Scotia and Scandinavia and specialises in large scale ceramics. He is particularly interested in the built environment and how ceramic sculptures interact with architecture. It is an enjoyable class and we are currently assisting the students with building large scale sculptures using slab building techniques.
This is proving to be inspirational for my artwork as well, and I have started to explore the idea of 222 grips for a stone, where the clay (consisting of minerals) becomes the stone. This is an exciting place of discovery where working with the soft clay opens more possibilities for how things can attach or grip the 'stone'.
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| #17 of 222 Grips for a Stone before firing |
My first experiment consisted with embedding a large bolt into clay. This was about 20cm long and 15cm wide. It was quite heavy, and a solid piece of clay.
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| #17 of 222 Grips for a Stone after firing |
The piece broke in the kiln (it wasn't 100 percent dry) and I prefer the unexpected result compared with the controlled shape. It is an earthenware clay and was fired to cone 04. I particularly like iron bolt which turned black during the firing process.
The next step is to experiment with how certain glazes will interact with the piece, along with reduction firing, that may change the colour of the clay body.
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